Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Downtown Circulator, 10+ Months And Counting

One of my sources has revealed to me that the Lextran "Colt" service is just about ready to be set free on the streets of Lexington. If you remember, this is the faux "trolley" system that was formerly known as the downtown circulator.

There were to be two routes. One along Limestone and Upper streets and running between Transy and UK . The other along Main and Vine, although I still believe that a Main and Short loop is far more preferable. With South Limestone in the middle of extensive roadwork expected to be completed in July, I guess that this route will come some time from now.

A recent meeting of the committee directing the Colt service discussed the finalization of the Main/? route. Woodford Webb, a major player in this venture, was not in attendance but he did send someone in his place. I am told that representatives of UK and Transylvania also missed the meeting. Other key supporters, Phil Holoubek who holds key parcels on Short St. and Harold Tate the director of Lexington DDA pushed for the route along Main and Short, purely for reasons that I pointed out back in January.

I am told that Mr Holoubek informed this committee that "an older gentleman around town" had made this suggestion in a blog. Is he talking about me? Does Phil follow my blog? If so, how many other ideas have gone farther than this mere blip in cyberspace? (And I refuse to think of myself as an older gentleman, even at my age.)

I am sure that Mr. Tate and Mr Holoubek have the best interest of this city(and their own investments ) at heart, but I hear that this decision went the way of all "high level" decisions. This decision was made by using the golden rule-he that has the gold, makes the rules. Thats right, you've got it, the Webb Companies will be paying for a "trolley that runs around their development and serves everybody else on the periphery. It makes no difference that the route passes practically NOTHING else along Vine St that could be considered a destination, or that the previous "trolleys" had to be run along the Old Vine St. in order to justify their being on the east end of Main St. If this Main/Vine route makes sense, then the UK to Transy route using Upper and Mill(until S. Limestone is finished) would also make sense.

I am not in favor of this tourist attraction and you can go back and see that I have not been silent about my concerns, but if we are going to follow through with this, then it should be done as best as can be done. I, for one, cannot see leaving my office , catching the "trolley" to a restaurant in Victorian Square and arriving in less time than I could have walked there. I also don't want to see this set of baby steps get tripped up by any construction, either near-term streetscape or long-term major building work(Remember, they would like to get started tomorrow).

2 comments:

Phil Holoubek as well as other developers would do well to pay attention to your blog. My impression is that he's pretty civic minded based on his participation in other city projects and task forces (is that the proper plural?).